From Ao Nang, you can see a Krabi island that appears not to be very far… That is Poda island and you can reach it within 15-20 minutes by longtail boat. Just behind it is Tupe island or Koh Tup or Thale Waek and Chicken island or Koh Gai.
Again I was lucky that I tried to visit it during Songkran- Thai new year- holiday, otherwise I don’t think I would find more people to join a longtail boat to get from Ao Nang to Poda island.
The process is the same as going to Hong island, you need a minimum of 8 people and the boat can go. My idea was to go to Chicken island because I really wanted to see Tup island. And I really wanted to see it because during low tide the two islands are connected by a sandbar and it looks awesome!! But, I was the only one willing to go there, and the other 7 people wanted to go to Poda island, so I changed my mind and visited Poda island instead. Some days, the tide isn’t lowing, and if it was the case, I would be very disappointed, so I asked the lady at the counter if today the water would go low. She said no, and that definitely helped change my mind. After all, it was a lie. Yes, the water got very low!
So, whatever made me change plans meant no good to me, because it was on Poda island that the worst thing that happened to me during all my trips happened.
I had no idea what to expect from Poda island. When we dock, the island seems very boring and not so beautiful. My 1st thoughts were: is that it??? But, there is a path to the other side of the island from where all the longtail boats dock, and that is the beautiful part of Poda island. There is a trail that crosses the island and doesn’t take much more than 10 minutes to complete. On the other side, there is this beautiful blue water and white sand, and a completely empty beach, unlike the one where we docked. That was it! I could see Tup island not so far… a kayak would definitely get me there, but I had to enjoy Poda and so I did. There is nothing to do here besides staying at the beach and snorkeling. And that’s what I spent 70% of my time doing: snorkeling. I asked the boat driver to take the life jacket with me otherwise I wouldn’t have handled snorkeling so far from the beach and for so long. Snorkeling here was great and had 2 phases.
During high tide, the snorkeling experience is very different than the one during low tide. During high tide, I went far, closer to the rocks, and was able to see schools of different fish. It was really cool because I have never seen so many fish of the same kind together. They were not the colorful coral fish that you usually see in pictures but still was pretty cool to watch them in such large numbers.
During low tide, the water goes back so much that the view transforms. It looks like it is almost possible to walk all the way to Tup island. I snorkeled more than halfway there from Poda island, so I would say it is possible to go there if you feel more adventurous.
During low tide, the water shades change. The blues turn brighter and it is clear where all the corals are. I prefer the views during low tide with this amazingly clear blue water. I stayed in the furthest corner of the island from where we docked.
I had no idea that the water would retrieve so much so I got tired of snorkeling during high tide, but seeing all those corals within walking distance during low tide attracted me too much, and attracted me to hell. Probably It was a stupid idea to snorkel in such shallow water, but I had no idea about the dangers hiding. I was snorkeling extremely close to the corals, my body was floating a few centimeters above them. This was the most fun part of my snorkeling day. I could finally see the colorful fish, lots of “Nemo’s”- aka clown fish- colorful anemones, so many different and colorful beautiful fishies!!! When I thought it was enough and that I was way too close to the corals, I decided to leave, and on my last few steps on the water BAM HELL!!!
I was literally a few steps away from the sand and preparing to go back to the boat, because we were supposed to leave at 4 pm, when I felt a very painful bite on my foot. I thought maybe I was pinched by a crab, but soon realized it couldn’t be it.
My foot started to bleed heavily in what appeared to be a round-shaped bite that is very painful, but it just got worse. My foot was not stopping bleeding and huge quantities of blood were flowing out of it as if nothing could stop it. I have to rush because I need to go to the boat and I need to ask for help because something very wrong happened and I had no idea what. The pain was just growing stronger from that point on. I couldn’t even think, it was so painful to walk those 15 minutes to the other side of the island where the people were. Finally, I saw the 1st aid guide and asked for help. He cleaned the wound, squeezed it, and sealed it, the problem is that my pain is not going away, it is just getting worst and worst… Another major problem, he didn’t speak any English!!! So I had no idea what had happened to me. What could be so painful?? I had no clue. I was almost crying so hard was the pain. I couldn’t use my brain properly I was aware of that later. I could have used a pen for him to write down in Thai the name of the animal that had bitten me because he couldn’t write on my phone as it doesn’t have Thai characters. Or I could have used google Translate with sound… whatever… I simply couldn’t think I guess. I just asked him: hospital?- he answered “no” which relieved me. I was in such shallow water that I was sure that it was not a jellyfish, also cause I saw something swimming away when I was bitten. No way it was a crab… He told me it was ok. Tomorrow I will be ok. I trusted him. But the pain grew to excruciating levels when I was already back at my place. I was searching for what could it be. Something was very wrong with me. The pain was making me scream like a pregnant lady and I couldn’t let go of my foot like I was having cramps. I have never felt so much pain in my life!! This was the most horrible pain I have ever felt: it was a stingray. I discovered it must have been a stingray by other testimonies I read on the net about the symptoms, pain, etc. And it made sense. In such shallow water, it must have been. I was only sure when I read that the first 2 hours are the most painful and that putting my feet in hot water as hot as my body can handle would be the only thing that would relieve the pain. I decided to give it a try. It worked. It was definitely a stingray!!
Well, at least I could enjoy Poda island until the last minute…
But it was not over yet… continue HERE!
